One way that spatial locations of sound sources may be resolved is by a listener perceiving an interaural time difference (“ITD”) in the arrival of a sound to each of the two ears of the listener. For example, if the listener perceives that a sound arrives at his or her left ear prior to arriving at his or her right ear, the listener may determine, based on the ITD of the sound's arrival to each ear, that the spatial location of the sound source is to the left of the listener. The relative magnitude of the ITD may further indicate to the listener whether the sound source is located slightly to the left of center (in the case of a relatively small ITD) or further to the left (in the case of a larger ITD). In this way, listeners may use ITD cues along with other types of cues to spatially locate various sound sources in the world around them, as well as to segregate and/or distinguish the sound sources from noise and/or from other sound sources.
Unfortunately, many cochlear implant systems are not configured to encode ITD cues in representations of sound provided to cochlear implant patients relying on the cochlear implant systems, and, as a result, it may be difficult for the cochlear implant patients to spatially locate sound sources around themselves or to segregate and/or distinguish particular sound sources from other sound sources or from noise in the environment surrounding the patients. Even cochlear implant systems that have attempted to encode ITD cues into representations of sound provided to cochlear implant patients have been of limited use in enabling the cochlear implant patients to successfully and easily locate the sound sources around them. For example, cochlear implant systems may encode ITD cues onto signals that are presented to patients with timing that is unrelated to the sound being represented or that is related to the sound in a non-ideal way that makes the ITD less natural and/or more difficult for the patient to perceive. Additionally, cochlear implant systems attempting to preserve ITD cues may encode the ITD cues onto signals at stimulation pulse rates that, while appropriate for reproducing sound content, may be too high for patients to successfully or easily perceive the ITD cues.